Chapter 231 - Count Chong
It was the first time that Ji Hao was walking into Pu Ban City.
This city was nothing like he had imagined. There were no magnificent buildings to be found here, not were there guarded palaces or mansions to be seen. Except the residential areas that were built by the large and powerful organizations, which had come from all the four Wastelands, like the Ten Sun Country, all the other parts of Pu Ban City was entirely natural.
The road paved with flagstones were over two-zhang wide, freely extending along the terrain. There were branch paths that led to smaller hills, woods, rivers and valleys. Under those smaller hills, within those woods and valleys, and beside rivers or streams, you could see a cabin, or a small building, or a few stone houses that were built in a circle.
Buildings here in the Pu Ban City were sparsely built upon the natural geographic feature. People that had come from the same clan, would built their residence close the houses of their clansmen, while people from different clans lived relatively far away from each other.
In Ji Hao’s eyes, the Pu Ban City was a huge unit that consisted of smaller villages. It seemed as if a gigantic hand had conveniently grabbed thousands, even tens of thousands of villages, and had randomly thrown them on this beautiful and fertile Pu Ban City. With these small villages, the Pu Ban city was formed gradually.
Quack, quack!
A huge group of green-headed duck, which was all too fat to even move, walked over along with the road. Nearly three thousand ducks were walking towards Ji Hao while swaying their bodies. The duck that was walking in front to the troop, which looked like a leader, proudly let out a few quacks at Ji Hao, even leaning its head forward in order to try pecking Ji Hao.
Ji Hao could only step aside and stand in the cluster of grass that reached his waist, and let those ducks have the entire road.
This group of fat ducks slowly walked pass Ji Hao while swaying their round fat butts. A few female ducks abruptly raised their buttes and quivered their bodies, letting out a few warm, green duck eggs on the grass.
“Eh?!” Ji Hao bowed happily, preparing to pick those few eggs up. He was planning to boil them later as his dinner, but two huge and slim dogs immediately rushed over, while wagging their tails. They practically rolled those few eggs with their tongues, right after which, a cute, tiny fluffy white donkey, carrying a big basket on its back, ran quickly over.
These two dogs gently put those duck eggs in the basket that was being carried on the back of the donkey, then thrust their long and wet tongues, friendly licking Ji Hao’s palm, leaving a quite fresh smell of duck’s shit on his palm.
“Eh…nice…nice doggies…” Ji Hao became speechless while showing the whites of his eyes. He then rubbed the necks of the two dogs, as if they were old friends. Really nice doggies, they were both over six-foot long and had glowing, bright fur. You could clearly see their solid muscles under their skin, which seemed so powerful and healthy.
What had made Ji Hao feel even more speechless was that he could sense over ten Magus Acupoints, which were releasing a strong sense of power, from each of the dog’s body. These two dogs were both Senior Magus level beasts, and each had even double the amount of Magus Acupoints than Ji Hao.
The two dogs seemed to be liking the simple and natural smell of Ji Hao very much. They stayed around his body and continuously rubbed his legs with their necks. That tiny donkey remained standing quietly beside Ji Hao, slowly letting out its long pink tongue into the grass cluster, then quickly rolled a big strand of purple-flower clover and white-tongue orchid into its mouth, which he began chewing slowly.
“Ah...haha, my little friend there, both Big Flower and Small flower seems to like you.”
Followed by this voice, an elderly man, who was wearing a raincoat and a large rain hat that was made from bamboo, walked slowly over behind the ducks. He had a bamboo basket that was designed to carry fishes, tied around his waist. A gentle breeze blew across his face, and the small rain fell on his body. The silhouette of this elderly man seemed to have merged with this entire piece of world, so natural and beautiful, just like an ink and wash painting.
“I like them too.” Ji Hao smiled and bowed slightly to that elderly man. Even the dogs of this elderly man were Senior Magus level beasts. It was quite easy to imagine how powerful this elderly man was.
“Hm, every kid who can be treated friendly by Big Flower and Small Flower are all good kids,” said the elderly man while taking out a boiled Chinese yam-like piece of plant’s root, and handed it over to Ji Hao, then said, “Unlike some of the other kids, who would always be chased and bitten by Big Flower and Small Flower. Once they had nearly bitten the butts of those boys off.
Taking over the plant’s root, Ji Hao watched the elderly man held his hands back behind his body, take the two dogs, one donkey and a huge group of duck, and walk slowly away. He abruptly spoke out, and asked, “Dear elder, do you know where Si Xi, Count Chong’s home, is?”
The elderly man stopped walking, turned his head around and responded with a smile, “Walk straight forward for three hundred miles, past twelve villages, you will see a house with large amounts of dragon-skin plants growing around it, that’s his home. Hm, he has been staying in recently.”
Ji Hao thanked the elderly man, rushed out along the stone-paved road. Three hundred miles was quite a long distance for ordinary people, but it would only take a short while for a Senior Magus like Ji Hao.
Ji Hao walked pass a few small hills and lakes, which were breathtakingly beautiful sceneries, and had exchanged greetings with a few locals. While walking, Ji Hao ate that, still warm, piece of root. Once he swallowed that one foot long piece of root, the two flames that had already moved into the Magus Acupoint of Ji Hao’s Dan Tian, suddenly expanded into double the size it had been, and became a lot more condensed than before. At the same time, Ji Hao felt a stream of gentle and soft power gushing around his entire body. Soon after that, quite a few more Magus Acupoints of Ji Hao were awakened.
With a slight breath, eighteen spheres of firelight lit up on Ji Hao’s body.
Even Ji Hao was shocked badly of himself. He turned his head back and looked into the hazy rainy air. Pu Ban City was as magical as people said. Every single person living here could be a great, powerful Magus. Even an elderly man who was leisurely farming ducks with two dogs and one donkey could carelessly give such a powerful natural treasure to Ji Hao as a small gift.
“This probably had been his lunch,” murmured Ji Hao.
It was a slightly difficult for Ji Hao to accept, but obviously that elderly man carried this piece of plant root with him as his daily food, which served simply as a stomach filler for him. Ji Hao had already awakened all his meridians, but this piece of root still awakened a few more Magus Acupoints of his. If he had been an ordinary Senior Magus, this piece of unknown plant root could have awakened at least two to three hundred Magus Acupoints of his.
“You old monster…”
Ji Hao murmured to himself, then kept moving forward along the road. He quickly walked across a mile wide river through a single-plank bridge. In front of him was a small valley, within which, a simple cabin that had a straw roof and a mud wall was clearly visible.
On the left side of that small cabin, were five smaller cabins built in a line, serving as kitchen, storage rooms and other functional spaces. Tens of beautiful and proud roosters were pecking the ground. Behind the small cabin was a piece of field, which was around two to three hundred acres. Only one kind of plant was planted in the field, and that was the dragon-skin plant, looking like cabbages but had glowing golden dragon scale-like patterns.
A quite tall and impressively sturdy and muscular man, who had a seemingly reliable and square face and red skin, was holding a hoe and was carefully weeding that field. From time to time, he would pick up a worm from those dragon-skin plants and conveniently flicked them flying into the yard. Every time he did that, those tens of roosters would immediately rush over and fight against each other for that worm.
A few big dogs, which had bright and shining fur, were lying in front of the small cabin. Seeing Ji Hao coming, those dogs stood up while happily swaying their heads and shaking their tails, letting out a few barks.
Ji Hao bowed slightly towards the man, then said with a loud and resonating voice, “I am an apprentice of the Magi Palace, named Ji Hao, and have come to visit Si Xi, the Count Chong.”
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SR: A little teaser, the next chapter will introduce someone ‘brother’ Si Xi….and he is related to another powerful figure we have already met! :p
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Edited by SecondRate
Translated by XianXiaWorld